Source: From DICTIONARY OF NORTH CAROLINA BIOGRAPHY edited by William S. Powell. Copyright (c) 1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.unc.edu

Arthur Barlowe (fl. 1584), explorer, is remembered today for his
entertaining report to Sir Walter Raleigh describing the
experiences of the 1584 Virginia expedition, of which he was a
member. This report has been called "one of the clearest
contemporary pictures of the contact of Europeans with North
American Indians." In his narrative, Barlowe describes the
four-month expedition (27 Apr. to mid-September 1584) in glowing
terms. The savages are "most gentle, loving and faithfull, void of
all guile, and treason, and such as lived after the manner of the
golden age." A detailed picture of their generous hospitality is
given, as well as the manner of making boats, warfare among the
tribes, and the type of food grown and its preparation. The soil
was the "most plentifull, sweete, fruitfull, and wholsome of all
the world," and English peas planted by the voyagers grew fourteen
inches in ten days. There are omissions in Barlowe's report,
however, and it is thought that the omitted material was suppressed
deliberately, for propaganda purposes.

Nothing is known of Barlowe personally except that, like Philip
Amadas, he was part of Raleigh's household in his early years. On
the Virginia expedition he was second captain to Amadas and
accompanied him on the visit to Chief Wingina's village on Roanoke
Island. On the return to England in September, they took with them
two Indians, Manteo and Wanchese, who were taught English and
served as propaganda agents for a second voyage.

There is no certain evidence that Barlowe returned to Virginia
on the 1585 expedition, although Amadas did. His name is listed
only in the Holinshed account of the 1585 expedition, and that
reference cannot be trusted. He is not listed in the Tiger
journal, and, although it is possible that Barlowe kept the journal
himself and forgot to include his own name, the report is not
written in his style. Like his friend Amadas, Barlowe dropped out
of sight after his return to England.